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Post by CharlesX on Aug 6, 2023 17:57:41 GMT
Those of us who bought FF in its heyday might remember this romantic comedy based around a woman who in two realities played out in the same film catches or doesn't catch a train, so arguably non-linear if not to the extent and manner gamebooks tend to be (the change just happens some minutes in the film, with no choice from watchers). It was pretty gimmicky and average, and I've heard the original Polish film with the concept 'Blind Chance' was miles better. Does anyone remember Sliding Doors or think it left a strong impression? Or perhaps you have seen Blind Chance, which I understand is obscure outside Poland?
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Aug 6, 2023 18:41:12 GMT
Never seen it though remember the Aqua song well! An episode of Frasier did a take on the idea that was pretty good - the conclusion being whatever path Frasier takes he always ends up miserable!
Not quite the same concept, but Run Lola Run always feels quite gamebooky to me - everytime she messes up, she goes back and tries something different with different consequences.
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Post by CharlesX on Aug 6, 2023 19:09:14 GMT
Never seen it though remember the Aqua song well! An episode of Frasier did a take on the idea that was pretty good - the conclusion being whatever path Frasier takes he always ends up miserable! Not quite the same concept, but Run Lola Run always feels quite gamebooky to me - everytime she messes up, she goes back and tries something different with different consequences. A bit like Groundhog Day or the Happy Death Day films - in Happy Death Day and the sequel, the day resets every day, but there is a killer attacking the protaganist and others, so dangerous like a gamebook.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Aug 6, 2023 19:13:00 GMT
A bit like Groundhog Day or the Happy Death Day films - in Happy Death Day and the sequel, the day resets every day, but there is a killer attacking the protaganist and others, so dangerous like a gamebook. Oh yeah, how did I not think of Groundhog Day! Never heard of Happy Death Day, sounds good.
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Post by a moderator on Aug 6, 2023 23:51:01 GMT
There was also a pair of French films, the titles translating as Smoking and Non-Smoking, in which there were multiple points where the plot would branch, showing what would happen if a character did one thing, and then what would transpire if they did something else. I watched both back in the late 1990s, but can't remember anything beyond the CYOA-ish narrative and the fact that (as the titles suggest) the first point at which storylines bifurcate is when one of the leads picks up a pack of cigarettes and either lights up or puts the box back down again. And I think it was the sort of branching narrative where the decision made has little to no relevance to what tangent the plot takes.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Aug 7, 2023 6:43:11 GMT
“The Man with Rain in His Shoes” aka “Twice Upon a Yesterday”
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Post by CharlesX on Aug 7, 2023 15:15:35 GMT
There was also a pair of French films, the titles translating as Smoking and Non-Smoking, in which there were multiple points where the plot would branch, showing what would happen if a character did one thing, and then what would transpire if they did something else. I watched both back in the late 1990s, but can't remember anything beyond the CYOA-ish narrative and the fact that (as the titles suggest) the first point at which storylines bifurcate is when one of the leads picks up a pack of cigarettes and either lights up or puts the box back down again. And I think it was the sort of branching narrative where the decision made has little to no relevance to what tangent the plot takes.Not sure I understand what you mean. The decision only has an effect on the narrative by a complicated, improbable and sophisticated chain of events like A Sound of Thunder? Everything just happens out-of-the-blue and with little common sense like an R. A. Montgomery CYOA? Or something else? Intrigued by my own thread and its development I found a Sliding Doors-esque film on Netflix Look Both Ways. I found it pretty below-average and stopped watching after half-an-hour (didn't relate with the storyline, little comedy or drama, undistiguished and unexciting..) .
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Post by a moderator on Aug 7, 2023 16:09:39 GMT
As I said, it's been a long time since I saw the films, and they didn't particularly stick in the memory. But, as I recall, there was rarely any significant causal link between the decision and the different ways in which the plot branched.
I did a spot of research, and found an example: if the woman who makes the initial decision does smoke a cigarette, someone turns up to help with the gardening, prompting revelations about her unhappy marriage. If she doesn't smoke, she is instead visited by her husband's best friend, who has a secret crush on her. No 'complicated, improbable and sophisticated chain of events' as such, and not as extreme as 'out-of-the-blue and with little common sense', but nothing to do with what she does with the cigarette.
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Post by scouserob on Aug 7, 2023 17:42:10 GMT
I saw this at the cinema back when I had an unlimited card. It was alright, but I don't think I'll ever watch it a second time.
I knew a lot of people who were captivated by the idea and there was much discussion in the pub, speculating on what the innocuous moments were that had changed their lives in massive ways.
I think I must have encountered its High Concept a few times before (2000AD, books, low budget Sci-Fi?) as I don't remember being particularly impressed by the idea of wildly different parallel universes branching off from various seemingly insignificant decisions.
(Such as being on one side or the other of those sliding train doors.)
The phrase 'Sliding Doors Moment' came from it, the meaning of which, I'm guessing, is still pretty widely known 25 years later, so it certainly made a general impression on audiences at the time. (Dido's 'Thank You' was on the soundtrack, that seemed much later, probably due to old Eminem.)
Couldn't see it striking such a chord now with the omnipresent trend for mainstream movie multiverses.
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Post by CharlesX on Aug 7, 2023 17:55:14 GMT
I saw this at the cinema back when I had an unlimited card. It was alright, but I don't think I'll ever watch it a second time. I knew a lot of people who were captivated by the idea and there was much discussion in the pub, speculating on what the innocuous moments were that had changed their lives in massive ways. I think I must have encountered its High Concept a few times before (2000AD, books, low budget Sci-Fi?) as I don't remember being particularly impressed by the idea of wildly different parallel universes branching off from various seemingly insignificant decisions. (Such as being on one side or the other of those sliding train doors.) The phrase 'Sliding Doors Moment' came from it, the meaning of which, I'm guessing, is still pretty widely known 25 years later, so it certainly made a general impression on audiences at the time. (Dido's 'Thank You' was on the soundtrack, that seemed much later, probably due to old Eminem.) Couldn't see it striking such a chord now with the omnipresent trend for mainstream movie multiverses. As I said I was disappointed with the 2020s take on it in Netflix's Look Both Ways; my understanding is Sliders had some commercial success but heavily failed to deliver on the potential unlike some less tendentious and for want of better words 'less preachy' movies, and yes, modern-day superhero films as well as clever SF & fantasy fiction-writers such as Michael Moorcock.
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